Iowa artists wanted for Seattle public art project

Monday, November 11, 2013 2:45 PM

Iowa artists could leave their creative mark in the Pacific Northwest city of Seattle. The city is embarking on a major redevelopment project along its downtown waterfront and, thanks to Seattle's public art law, part of the construction budget to rebuild the Elliott Bay Seawall will pay for a million-dollar public art commission. As a result, the city has put out an international call to artists everywhere. "The work needs to be a work of global significance," Office of Arts & Culture director Randy Engstrom said in this interview. "The fact that we are talking about the waterfront: this is an international connection point. We want to be really clear that we're certainly not excluding local or regional artists, and it would be super-awesome if a local artist ends up being the selected artist, but we didn't want to limit it that way because it was such a large-scale call." The deadline for applications is Dec. 19 and can be completed online. The art will be located on the public piers of the renewed waterfront, either Pier 62/63 or the Union Street Pier.